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Trump's threat to NATO allies sparks fierce backlash in Europe

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Trump's threat to NATO allies sparks fierce backlash in Europe

European leaders have decried Donald Trump’s suggestion the US would not protect NATO members failing to meet the alliance’s spending target.

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The former US president and current Republican frontrunner suggested in a South Carolina rally he would “encourage” Russia to attack any NATO country that does not contribute 2% of its GDP to the alliance’s coffers.

He claimed the president of an unnamed “big country” in Europe had asked him: “If we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?”

Trump said his response was: “No I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.”

Speaking in Brussels on Monday morning, the EU’s foreign policy and defence chief Josep Borrell said: “Let’s be serious. NATO cannot be an ‘à la carte’ military alliance. (It) cannot be a military alliance that works depending on the humour of the President of the US on those days.”

“I’m not going to spend my time commenting on any silly idea that comes during this campaign in the US,” he added.

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Trump’s inflammatory comments were also censured by Charles Michel, president of the European Council. “Reckless statements on NATO’s security and Art 5 solidarity serve only Putin’s interest,” Michel said on social media platform X.

Article 5 requires each of the military alliance’s 31 countries to come to the aid of any member who becomes a victim of an armed attack. It has been invoked only once in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the US.

“They do not bring more security or peace to the world,” Michel went on. “On the contrary, they reemphasise the need for the EU to urgently further develop its strategic autonomy and invest in its defence. And to keep our Alliance strong.”

The European Commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton, told French TV channel LCI that Trump’s comments showed that American democracy was “sick.”

“We cannot gamble our security every 4 years,” Breton said, referring to the US presidential elections.

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He also claimed Trump’s comments related to a conversation he had with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen whilst he was in office in 2020. Trump reportedly told her the US would not help Europe if it was attacked.

“You need to understand that if Europe is under attack we will never come to help you and to support you,” Trump said during the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, according to Breton, adding that “by the way, NATO is dead.”

The foreign ministry of Germany – one of NATO’s biggest spenders whose expenditure nonetheless does not reach the target of 2% of GDP – said that “this NATO creed keeps more than 950 million people safe – from Anchorage to Erzurum.”

Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt, who sits on the parliament’s delegation for relations with the United States, also took to X to call on the EU to “coordinate and integrate defence efforts from procurement to deployment,” to reduce reliance on Washington.

Officials in Brussels are increasingly nervous that a Trump comeback could severely disrupt the West’s tightly aligned policy on Ukraine and erode NATO’s influence.

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The bloc is looking to scale up its defence industry and military capabilities in a bid to boost its so-called “strategic autonomy.”

Fears that Trump could re-impose punitive trade tariffs on EU products entering the US are also raising the alarm. Trump has vowed that if elected he will raise a 10% tax on all foreign imports, and even higher levies on China-made goods.

A spokesperson of the European Commission said on Monday that the executive is “setting up a structured internal process to prepare for all possible outcomes of the US presidential elections,” but no further details were provided.

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Jeff Baena, Film Director and Husband of Aubrey Plaza, Dead at 47

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Jeff Baena, Film Director and Husband of Aubrey Plaza, Dead at 47


Jeff Baena Dead: Aubrey Plaza’s Husband’s Cause of Death



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World’s oldest person dies in Japan at 116

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World’s oldest person dies in Japan at 116

Tomiko Itooka, a Japanese woman who was the world’s oldest person, according to Guinness World Records, has died, an Ashiya city official said Saturday. She was 116.

Yoshitsugu Nagata, an official in charge of elderly policies, said Itooka died Dec. 29 at a care home in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, central Japan.

Itooka, who loved bananas and a yogurt-flavored Japanese drink called Calpis, was born May 23, 1908. She became the oldest person last year after the death of 117-year-old Maria Branyas, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

Tomiko Itooka celebrates her 116th birthday at the nursing home where she lives in Ashiya, Japan, May 23, 2024.  (Ashiya City via AP)

WORLD’S OLDEST MAN, DEAD AT 112, ATE THIS MEAL EVERY FRIDAY

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When she was told she was at the top of the World Supercentenarian Rankings List, she simply replied, “Thank you.”

When Itooka celebrated her birthday last year, she received flowers, a cake and a card from the mayor.

Born in Osaka, Itooka was a volleyball player in high school and long had a reputation for a sprightly spirit, Nagata said. She climbed the 3,067-meter (10,062-foot) Mount Ontake twice.

Tomiko Itooka celebrates her 116th birthday

Tomiko Itooka celebrates her 116th birthday at the nursing home where she lives in Ashiya, Japan, May 23, 2024. (Ashiya City via AP)

OLDEST PERSON IN THE US, ELIZABETH FRANCIS, DIES AT 115 YEARS OLD IN HOUSTON

She married at 20, and had two daughters and two sons, according to Guinness.

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Itooka managed the office of her husband’s textile factory during World War II. She lived alone in Nara after her husband died in 1979.

She is survived by one son and one daughter and five grandchildren. A funeral service was held with family and friends, according to Nagata.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, the world’s oldest person is now 116-year-old Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was born 16 days after Itooka.

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Austrian chancellor to resign after coalition talks collapse

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Austrian chancellor to resign after coalition talks collapse

Nehammer says his People’s Party would not support measures that it believes would harm the economy or new taxes.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has said he will resign after talks between the country’s biggest centrist parties on forming a government without the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) collapsed.

The announcement on Saturday comes a day after the liberal Neos party withdrew from the negotiations with Nehammer’s conservative People’s Party (OVP) and the Social Democrats (SPO).

“After the breakoff of the coalition talks I am going to do the following: I will step down both as chancellor and party chairman of the People’s Party in the coming days,” he said.

In a video posted to his social media accounts, the outgoing chancellor said “long and honest” negotiations with the centre-left failed despite a shared interest in fending off the gaining far right.

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Nehammer emphasised that his party would not support measures that it believes would harm the economy or new taxes.

He said he would enable “an orderly transition” and railed against “radicals who do not offer a single solution to any problem but only live from describing problems”.

The far-right Freedom Party (FPO) won the first parliamentary election in its history in late September with close to 30 percent of the vote.

But other parties refused to govern in a coalition with the eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO and its leader Herbert Kickl, so President Alexander Van der Bellen in late October tasked Nehammer to form a coalition.

Nehammer’s announcement comes after he also failed to reach an understanding with the Neos party.

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Neos leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger said progress was impossible and that “fundamental reforms” had not been agreed upon.

After the chancellor’s exit, the OVP is expected to convene to discuss potential successors.

The political landscape remains uncertain in Austria, with no immediate possibility of forming a stable government due to ongoing differences between the parties.

The president may now appoint another leader and an interim government as the parties try to find a way out of the deadlock.

The next government in Austria faces the challenge of having to save between 18 to 24 billion euros ($18.5-24.7bn), according to the European Commission.

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The country’s economy has been in a recession for the past two years, is experiencing rising unemployment and its budget stands at 3.7 percent of gross domestic product – above the European Union’s limit of 3 percent.

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